French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin on Wednesday presented his government's general policy for the next two years in front of the lower house of the French parliament, giving priority to fight against unemployment.

"All the energies of my government will be committed to this battle," he said, pledging to help small and medium sized businesses by creating simplified hiring procedures, and to facilitate the hiring of youths and jobless people over 50 years of age.

People who have been unemployed for over a year will receive a 1,000-euro (US$1,250) payment if they find work, he said.

He also invited the French job center for employment seekers, ANPE, to offer soon a solution to 57,000 young people who are jobless since more than one year, while saying the jobless who refused several times a reasonable employment will be punished.

Villepin also promised more housing, more child-care places and more spending on research and development to spur economic activity, and he said the process of motorways privatization and the public offering of shares of the state gas and electricity companies would be soon.

He also affirmed that France, as one of the European Union (EU)'s founders, would remain committed to the European Union and continue to play a major role in the bloc.

"All of our country remains committed to the European project," said Villepin, ten days after the French voters rejected the landmark European Union constitutional treaty, which needs the approval of the 25 EU members and aims at simplifying the decision-making in the enlarged bloc.

"Don't interpret this vote as a signal of French isolation... The adventure has not stopped. Our European dream will emerge strengthened by these tests," he said, adding that he saw the French rejection of the EU charter as having its roots in worries that the French could lose their cherished welfare system and labor protections to EU-wide reforms based on free market ideology.

"The French people don't fear of Europe, they want to know the rules and participate to their definition...The continent's rapid enlargement surprised our compatriots. They understand the historic legitimacy and necessity, but they are fearful of the economic and social consequences," he said.

"Our vision inherited from 1789 (the date of the French Revolution) has a grandness and a truth. Yes, France wants to remain a living conscience. Yes, France wants to be at the vanguard. Yes, France wants to turn resolutely to the future," he said.

The budget allocated for his plan will cost at least 4.5 billion euros in 2006, including the cost of cutting payroll taxes to boost hiring, according to Villepin.

France's unemployment rate currently stands at 10.2 percent, and has been stubbornly hovering around 10 percent for years.

The new plan obtained the approval by the lower house of the French parliament with 363 for and 178 against as well as four abstentions. Among 577 members of parliament, 32 didn't vote.

(Xinhua News Agency June 9, 2005)